


Priorities

by AthenasAspis (agentandromeda)



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Fiona - Freeform, First Kiss, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, M/M, Original Character(s), Post-Helios, Sasha - Freeform, Sickfic, Yvette - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-08-07 16:08:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16411670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agentandromeda/pseuds/AthenasAspis
Summary: Vaughn gets bitten by a rabid stalker while out on patrol. Turns out being bedridden is a great way to sort out some personal issues.For the Hub of Heroism gift exchange! This one's for @oneshotP





	Priorities

**Author's Note:**

  * For [oneshotP](https://archiveofourown.org/users/oneshotP/gifts).



> This one's for the Hub of Heroism gift exchange, but I hope yall can still enjoy it! I really fell in love with this while writing it.

As the former Hyperion employees crowded around him, panicked, yelling, Ruhl lifting him onto a makeshift stretcher, all Vaughn could think of was the piles of droppings he’d seen on the walk to the salvage site, and how this was his fault, because he really should have seen this coming. He blamed it on Helios; the space station had taken every last bit of him. He was dead on his feet, his limbs aching with exhaustion, even before the teeth hit his chest.

The background punch of gunfire rattled Vaughn’s burning chest with every sound, and as the stretcher started moving, lightning bolts of pain fired across his whole torso, forcing out strangled cries of pain. He had bitten his tongue, or maybe that blood had just been in his mouth to begin with. There was a part of him that was yelling in panic, urging his hand to claw in desperation at the blood leaking through the shirt Rivet was pressing to his chest as they awkwardly ran from the stalker nest. Instead he bit down and clenched his fists. He was in the danger zone now, and that meant he wasn’t Vaughn, the Hyperion accountant. He was the Sun King, and weakness was dangerous and unnecessary.

“You’re gonna be fine,” Ruhl was assuring him. “We’ll get you back to Helios. Brian’ll patch ya up, you’re gonna be fine.”

“It’s not too deep,” Rivet added. “We got the medicines to treat it.”

“What?” Vaughn hissed through clenched teeth. “Medicines?”

“For the blood,” Rivet said too quickly. “Nothing more needs to be treated. Definitely not. I wouldn’t lie to you. You’re going to be fine.”

At that point, Vaughn’s body made the independent executive decision to lose consciousness. Vaughn was not entirely ungrateful for this.

=======

Vaughn heard someone snoring, pulling him back to the world of wakefulness. His head hurt. His chest hurt. His whole body wanted to stay asleep. Even as he finally awoke, a part of him seemed to still be asleep. 

Vaughn blinked a few times and feebly turned his head from side to side. Finally, his gaze landed on Rhys, whose upper half was sprawled across Vaughn’s bed. He was out like a light. One hand resting loosely in Vaughn’s. Skin on skin on quilted blanket.

“You’re awake,” someone drawled.

Vaughn struggled upright to see Fiona and Sasha lounging against the arms of a couch on the other side of the room, nonchalant. 

“We just wanted to stop in,” Fiona continued. “Looks like we chose the right time.”

“Silly Fiona, that’s not true!” Gortys chirped from the floor. “We’ve all been here since they brought him in, right, Loader Bot?”

Loader Bot nodded. Fiona glared.

“Surprised ol’ log-sawer here didn’t wake you up earlier,” Sasha commented. 

“Careful,” Fiona added. “He drools in his sleep.”

Vaughn opened his mouth to speak and found it gummy and dry. When he reached for the water on his nightstand, his hands trembled. He wanted to cry in frustration. Sasha got up and helped him with the glass. Vaughn greedily swallowed every last drop.

“I’ll get you more of this,” Sasha said. “You’re running a pretty bad fever.”

It had been a long time since Vaughn had been sick. He thought back to the last time he’d had such a fever. It had come after a hastily covered up biohazard contamination in the Helios ventilation system. Upper management had insisted it was nothing, but Vaughn and half the accounting division were left bedridden. 

Vaughn barely remembered that week. He remembered hallucinating vividly and extremely scarily. He remembered cold rags and ice packs. He remembered Rhys on the ECHO, then by Vaughn’s side as he shivered violently under all the blankets Rhys could find.

“How long was I out?” Vaughn muttered, rubbing his eyes.

“You still look pretty out to me,” Sasha said with a rare tone of concern.

“A few hours,” Fiona said. “You bounced back pretty quick. Must be the abs.” She threw a pillow at Rhys. “Wake up, Atlas.”

Rhys jerked awake. Sure enough there was a trail of drool on his chin. He glared daggers at Fiona, but all that was forgotten when he saw Vaughn was awake.

“Vaughn!” he cheered. “Buddy! How are you feeling?”

“What the hell happened?” Vaughn asked. “Cuz I feel like I got hit by a truck.”

“Rabid stalker bite,” Rhys told him. “I was…I was pretty worried for a while there. Those things are nasty. Pandora, amirite?”

Vaughn leaned back into his pillows. That certainly explained the horrible pain still radiating from his left shoulder. He weakly held up a fist. Rhys bumped it.

After about an hour, everyone except Rhys made their exit. Rhys showed no sign of moving.

“How long am I gonna be out,” Vaughn asked him. “I got things to do. The solar panel project needs my oversight.”

“Hold your horses,” Rhys ordered. “I mean, you can go to the bathroom and stuff, but I talked to Brian about it, and rabid stalker bites are pretty nasty. In about a day, the fever’ll hit. That’ll go for two days. Then in about another three days, you’ll really be able to get out of bed.” He looked Vaughn over. “Actually, given your overall…state of fitness, you’ll probably be better sooner.”

Rhys folded himself into his chair, a task of considerable difficulty considering his freakishly long legs. 

“Does your chest hurt?”

“No.”

“Your chest hurts, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Vaughn admitted. Rhys walked out and came back with some ice picks. When he returned, he sat down next to Vaughn on the bed.

“Dude, you got bitten by a stalker. You don’t have to play tough, or whatever it is you’re doing.”

“Everything hurts,” Vaughn sighed, leaning into Rhys’s chest. Rhys leaned back. One hand absentmindedly fiddling with Vaughn’s hair. Brushing it back. Twisting it around a finger.

“Feels nice,” Vaughn muttered. He hadn’t meant to say anything. “You don’t have to take care of me.”

“I know,” Rhys said wistfully. “You can take care of yourself just fine.”

“Is that jealousy I hear, Mr. CEO?” Vaughn teased.

Rhys smiled good-naturedly, but there was a hint of defensiveness in his eyes.

“Wha-no. Just complimenting my bro.”

“You don’t have to play tough, or whatever it is you’re doing.”

Rhys sighed. Leaned in a bit closer. Helped Vaughn take a sip of water.

“I just—listen, ever since we got to Pandora, you, well—shit, I don’t know, I…I feel like you don’t need me.”

Vaughn started giggling uncontrollably. Rhys frowned, and Vaughn buried his face into the crook of Rhys’s neck to muffle his laughter. He really couldn’t help it. Rhys. Was jealous. Of Vaughn. Who knew?

“I guess I don’t need you to survive,” Vaughn told Rhys once he had composed himself, but I need you to live. And I want you. Here. Sorry. That was sappy.”

Suddenly, Vaughn felt like crying. An unbearable rush of heat crawled under his skin. Not embarrassment. The unstoppable force of a fever, coupled with a horrible ache in the very core of his bones.

“Promise you won’t leave again.”

Vaughn must have been more out of it than he thought, because he kept repeating that sentence through tears, and Rhys was crying too. Vaughn wasn’t scared; he was braver without Rhys, because he had to be, because there was no room for fear when nowhere was safe.

But he didn’t want Rhys to go. It was as simple as that. It was a lot more complicated than that.

“I promise,” Rhys said, and Vaughn was asleep almost immediately. 

The fever hit sometime after he fell asleep, and Vaughn drifted in and out of consciousness for two days. Rhys was always there, feeding him soup. And Rhys was there when Vaughn was asleep, by his side in every feverish dream.

There was one dream in particular, Rhys’s hands in Vaughn’s hair, Vaughn’s thumbs on Rhys’s cheeks, and Vaughn snapped awake angry at himself and angry at Rhys, but he was asleep again before he could articulate why. He felt Rhys’s metal hand so pleasantly cool on his forehead.

Vaughn was finally lucid on day three when the fever broke. And Rhys was still there. 

“Don’t you have a job or something?” Vaughn mumbled. 

“I have priorities,” Rhys replied, handing Vaughn a plate of crackers. “Besides, I can work on my computer while you’re asleep.” He snatched a cracker. “Are you okay?”

“Everything hurts,” Vaughn replied. “But I think I’m gonna be okay.”

Tension slipped from Rhys’s shoulders.

“You really scared me there, buddy.”

“Didn’t think you scared that easily.”

“I care about you, bro.” Rhys tenderly brushed a lock of Vaughn’s hair out of his face. “I really, really care about you.”

Rhys looked nervous. He brushed his own hair back with false bravado.

“Bro,” he asked tentatively, “can I tell you something?”

“Sure,” Vaughn said. “Anything.”

Rhys didn’t actually tell him anything. Instead, suddenly and without any apparent conscious decision on either of their parts, they were kissing. Years of pent-up feelings gone unspoken but never articulated finally found their release, and damn, it was nice. More complex thoughts didn’t even occur to Vaughn; there was just this, Rhys’s hands in his hair, his unexpectedly soft lips pressed to his own.

“Bad time?”

Rhys squeaked and whipped his head up. Vaughn turned to see Yvette leaning against the doorframe.

“Yvette, I—“ Rhys gasped.

“About time,” she interrupted. “I’ve been trying to get you boys to admit your feelings for years.”

Vaughn buried his head in a pillow. Rhys started laughing. 

“Yeah,” he said, “good thing we finally got our priorities straight.”

Helios was a drain. Helios took the vitality from Vaughn’s bones and demanded he give it up to others. But now that the air hung free and easy between him and Rhys, now that they’d started a new journey together, he got the feeling it was all going to be okay.

He’d have to make sure to put aside more time for himself and Rhys. After all, he had priorities.


End file.
